tributed, 1,137; pages of tracts distributed, 79,007; money received, $55.80. The receipts of the General Tract Society during the year had been $447.15, and its expenditures $455.08. The larger part of the expense had been incurred for publications, which had been sent to nearly all the Southern States, and to England, Holland, Italy, and Africa, and, by means of agents in those places, to all parts of the civilized world.

The Treasurer of the Educational Society reported that the total value of the property of the Society was $52,259.79, or, deducting for the amount of debts against the same, $44,582.28. The receipts for the year had been $10,499.39. Resolutions were adopted recommending the selection of fifty young men who should become students at Battle Creek College, to prepare for the ministry, those of them who need help to be assisted by loans of money without interest, and of fifty young women to be similarly assisted in preparing themselves for missionary work; and that efforts be made to raise a reserve fund of five thousand dollars for each of these purposes. The receipts of the Publishing Association for the year had been $233,071.38, and its property was valued, clear of debts, at $99,112.63. It published three English, one Danish, and one Swedish periodical, which, together with the publications of the Californian and Swiss publishing houses, had an aggregate monthly circulation of 67,676 copies.

The receipts of the Health-Reform Institute for the year had been $135,223.37. Its property was valued, above all liabilities, at $67,591.56. There had been 615 patients treated at the Institute, and its gross earnings for the year had been $32,000, and its actual gains $15,000.

The meeting of the General Sabbath-School Association was the first in its history. The Secretary's report showed that auxiliary associations had been formed in twelve of the different Conferences. Since most of the organizations had been so recently formed, their reports were brief and incomplete. Twelve of them (Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, New England, California, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Minnesota, Vermont, and Indiana) reported 177 schools and 5,851 members.

AFGHANISTAN. The reports of the internal condition of Afghanistan at the close of 1877 indicated that the Ameer was endeavoring to combine and consolidate his forces, and to carry out a policy which would eventually reduce the divisions of his state and give it a more compact organization. In those parts of the country where his authority was accepted, he was forming an army on the system of compulsory military service, by forcing one man in every twenty to enlist. Where this measure could not be carried out, a poll tax was levied. Difficulty was experienced in getting the recruits to subject themselves to drill, since the new levies, while they professed to

be willing to go out and fight whenever the jehad should be proclaimed and a part of the country allotted to them to subdue, objected to being brought under the restrictions of a regular soldier's life. In some cases the Ameer induced concurrence with his plans by subsidizing the petty chiefs with acceptable gifts. He is reported to have said, on taking leave of some of the minor chiefs who reside near British territory: "You should remain outwardly on good terms with the English, and try to get as much money from them as you can. But be sure you do not let them become acquainted with your mountain retreats. Manage to get back the hostages you have given, and bind yourselves only on personal responsibility." In connection with these measures, the Ameer began to rebuild the fort near Ali Musjid, close to the Khyber Pass, and about two marches from Peshawer. In June rumors became prevalent that the Ameer was massing troops on the frontier of Afghanistan, and was trying to intrigue with the nobles who were hostile to the presence of the English troops at Kelat and Quetta, and who disapproved of the friendliness of the Khan of Kelat toward the British Government. Evidence of the unfriendly disposition of the Ameer was given by the publication at Constantinople, in July, of a letter which he had addressed to the Sultan of Turkey in January, in which he expressed regret that the English had remained neutral in the RussoTurkish war; advised the Sultan that the Russians, while they were as energetic as the English, surpassed them in real friendship; declared that he was convinced that the Russians were much more honest and sincere than the English; and begged his Majesty "to withdraw from the English alliance and to approach Russia."

About the same time it was noticed that the Russian General Kaufmann had, on the 23d of June, taken the command of an expeditionary force to march through Bokhara to the upper basin of the Oxus. The "Moscow Gazette,' in an article on the subject, suggested that this movement might be the Russian answer to the British occupation of Cyprus, and showed that the presumed destination of the expedition was hardly more than four hundred versts, or twenty days' march, from the British possessions, and added: "England has constantly shown herself jealous of our progress in Asia. She knows that each step we make, each new diplomatic or military success we gain, hastens the moment at which Russia will be able to extend and consolidate her influence in the countries bordering on the British possessions. The present time seems very favorable for a continuation of this policy." The expedition was supposed to be aimed at Balkh, a point south of the Oxus, claimed by Shere Ali as ar Afghan province, and lying beyond the line which the Russians had agreed in 1873_that they would not pass. The menace to India which would be involved in a Russian occupa

tion of Balkh was mentioned by Lord Clarenden as long ago as 1869, when in his correspondence with Prince Gortchakoff he said that Balkh could be of no use to Russia except for purposes of aggression, and that "on the Hindoo Koosh the British possessions might be viewed as a traveler on the summit of the Simplon might survey the plains of Italy." A later and more definite statement of the objects of the Russian expedition represented that it aimed at the occupation of the six minor khanates between the southern course of the Amou Darya and the Hindoo Koosh, one of which, Vakhan, was acknowledged to be feudatory to Afghanistan. The occupation

of this khanate would reduce the distance between the Russian and English frontiers to about 325 miles, by roads easily passable in summer, but not so in winter. No official news was given respecting the progress of the expedition; but the Russian Agency published an article denying the statements that were current respecting its object, and professing that they related to old occurrences belonging to a time when England was making preparations for a war with Russia. The state of things had ceased with the causes with which it originated, and all the measures connected therewith had since been countermanded. A Russian mission, consisting of three Eu

ropean officers, of whom the chief was General Stolietoff, accompanied by an escort of Cossacks and Uzbecks, reached Cabool on the 22d of July, and was received by the Ameer in durbar, when the chief of the mission delivered two letters to the Ameer-one from the Czar, and one from the Governor-General of Turkistan. On the 2d of August a grand review was held in honor of the mission, to which troops and representatives had been summoned from all parts of Afghanistan. After the review, the Ameer gave the envoys written replies to the Russian letter, which were immediately sent off by a special mesTxU

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senger to Tashkend. This embassy was represented by a Russian diplomatist to have been ordered a long time before the Congress of Berlin, when the Russian relations with England had assumed a threatening character.

M. Arminius Vambéry, in a letter written to the "Allgemeine Zeitung," represented that the chief object of this Russian mission was to establish friendly relations between Tashkend and Cabool. As a means of putting pressure on Shere Ali with this view, Russia was holding in reserve the Afghan Prince Abdurrahman Khan, a relative of the Ameer, and at the same

time his deadly enemy. Abdurrahman had for some time been residing in voluntary exile at Samarcand, and with the help of Russia might become very dangerous to Shere Ali. It had been lately reported that Russia proposed to exchange Abdurrahman for Khudayar Khan, the ex-ruler of Khokand, who had escaped during the preceding winter from Orenburg to Cabool. But Khudayar, though he is evidently a man of considerable energy, was not popular with his people, who had thrice expelled him from their country; and M. Vambéry thought the Russians were not likely to put themselves to any trouble to get him again into their hands. Abdurrahman, on the other hand, was very popular in northeastern Afghanistan; and by threatening to support him as a pretender to the Afghan throne, Russia could at any moment secure the submissiveness of Shere Ali to its wishes.

A special mission was appointed by the Indian Government in August to proceed to Cabool for the purpose of opening negotiations with the Ameer, with a view, among its other objects, to induce the Ameer to allow a British resident to remain permanently at his capital. It was under the direction of Lieutenant-General Sir Neville Chamberlain, who was accompanied by several other officers and a doctor, and numbered, with his retinue of escorts, guides, and bearers, about one thousand men. Sir Neville Chamberlain, the chief of this mission, is an officer of the Indian service, whose military career began with the former Afghan war, where, although he was hardly more than a boy, he served with great honor, and gained a high reputation for gallantry. He was soon made commander of a regiment of irregular cavalry, and rose by rapid steps to the command of the Punjaub frontier force, a body of about eleven regiments of infantry and cavalry, which is stationed to guard the line of the northwest border, is directly under the orders of the Government of the Punjaub, and has been engaged in almost constant conflict with the enemy. From this command he was called during the mutiny to take the place of Colonel Chester, Adjutant-General of the Army, who was killed before Delhi. On the fall of Delhi he returned to the Punjanb, whence he was selected to command the troops which undertook the Umbeyla compaign of 1863. He was here severely wounded for the eighth time during his military service, and the campaign was completed by Sir John Garvock. General Chamberlain after these events retired from active service to the more quiet but highly honorable position of Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army, which he held at the time when he was appointed upon the mission to Cabool. By reason of his long and distinguished service on the border, it is said " no English name is better known or more respected throughout Afghanistan." Among his associates was Mr. Walter Henry Bellew, who had accompanied Lumsden's mission to Cabool twenty-one years

before, and was a member of the party which accompanied Sir Douglas Forsyth to Yarkand and Kashgar in 1874.

The embassy arrived at Simla about the 1st of September. An envoy had been sent to the Ameer at Cabool with letters announcing the intention of the Governor-General to dispatch the mission, and General Chamberlain and his staff remained near the frontier for several days awaiting the answer of the Ameer. The envoy, Ghulam Hussein Khan, who was personally well known and popular at Cabool, having resided there as a British agent for several years, was hospitably received, September 10th, but was given no encouragement concerning the object of his visit; the Ameer saying, it was reported, in reference to the British embassy, that if he chose to receive a mission he would himself invite it, but meanwhile it must await his pleasure at Peshawer. Sir Neville Chamberlain, having learned the Ameer's determination, decided to proceed on his expedition without waiting for a formal answer. He left Peshawer on the 21st of September for Jumrood, a point in British territory close to the Afghan frontier, while Major Cavagnari of his staff was dispatched with an escort of Khyberies to Ali Musjid, a station in Afghan territory, to ask for a safe passage from the Ameer's officer. The Afghan officer gave a courteous but decided refusal to the British request. After spending three hours in parleying with the Afghan, Major Cavagnari returned to Jumrood. The embassy then retired to Peshawer, in obedience to instructions telegraphed from the Viceroy, after which it was dissolved. Ghulam Hussein Khan, the Viceroy's envoy, was recalled from Cabool, and orders were issued for the concentration of troops on the Afghan frontier. Reenforcements were dispatched for the garrison at Quetta; a body of European and native troops was stationed at Thull, at the entrance to the Kuram Valley; a reserve force was collected at Sukkur; and the Baroghil and Korambar Passes were occupied by the troops of the Maharajah of Cashmere. On the other hand, the Ameer of Afghanistan threw a large force into the Khyber Pass, having a little after the middle of October, as was estimated at that time, collected at Ali Musjid, three miles from the British station at Jumrood, 25,000 men.

The Ameer returned by the envoy, Nawab Ghulam Hussein Khan, a reply to the British request, which Lord Cranbrook, in a dispatch written afterward, characterized as evasive, and which the British Government refused to accept as Shere Ali's final answer. The British Cabinet then instructed the Viceroy of India to address to his Highness a demand, "in temperate language," requiring a full and suitable apology within a given time for the affront he had offered to the Imperial Government, the reception of a permanent British mission within his territories, and reparation for any injury which had been inflicted by him